Originally published on March 3, 2008.
So I think I’m going to start featuring a “fancy pants” wine in each of my newsletters. In the last one, I had a little blurb about the general presence of fancy pants wines in the center of the shop (mainly because there’s no room for them on the shelves). The blurb got some good feedback (mainly because I think people like the term “fancy pants”) so it will now be a regular feature spotlighting one of my more expensive wines.
Anyhow, this week’s feature will be Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir 2006 from Walker Bay, South Africa. I actually brought this one in for my old boss at Moet Hennessy. She wanted a case of it and spoke so highly of it that I figured I would get a couple boxes for the shop. As soon as it hit the shelf, I was glad I did – it’s one of those wines that people would ooh and ahh over when they spotted it on the shelf. The winery and vineyards are located in Walker Bay, which is one of the Southernmost wine-growing subregions in South Africa. It’s quite cool there, so Pinot Noir does very well and Hamilton Russell makes a great one, if not the country’s best.
On to the wine itself – it has a really nice nose of red fruits – dark red cherries, some raspberries and a smokiness that adds and extra bit of complexity. That smokiness comes through on the palate, along with the dark red fruits and a nice earthiness. The tannins are fine-grained – just present enough to give the wine some structure and elegance but not so much that it veers into that big-brawny-wanna-be-another-type-of-grape territory. It’s very yummy stuff and at $33.99/bottle, while it’s not an everyday wine for most people, it’s a relative bargain for a chance to taste one of the very best Pinot Noirs coming out of South Africa today.